16 1 I - - AVCiVST 2. 2., 1 9 5:} ? ((/? 0Q /c(- V[[ ;)J ß n "Try to make this one picture you don't cut the heads of} in!" horn with the C.B.S Symphony; Charles McCracken, solo cello with the :\iletropolitan Opera Company orches- tra; and John Di J anni, solo viola, also with the Met. Among the concert- masters, there's Alfred BreunIng, of the City Center Opera Company; Arthur Bogin, of the AmerIcan Civic Opera Company; Henry KrutosIk, of the Bal- let Theatre; Herbert Baumel, of the National Symphony Orchestra of Vene- zuela; Gerald ,^'idoff, of the Chatta- nooga Symphony; and Leonid Bolotine, of the Kate Smith program. About half the men in the orchestra live on Long Island-one of them in a cabin cruiser off Freeport-and the rest commute nightly from Manhattan and en virons. Herbert Baumel does not commute from Venezuela. He's there from October to March, and the rest of the time he's right on West Ninety- second Street. The men have furmed car pools to help simplify their transpor- tation, and so far, though an occasional . . flareup of temperament is to be expected among so many topnotch men, all has been Venetian sweetness and ligh t. Saunders cited the exquIsite problem of outside stands. It is customary In an or- chestra, it seems, for the ranking player to be granted the outside stand. (The poor chap on the inside has to turn the pages of the music. ) "We got such ter- rific talent a lot of guys that are used to being outside are inside, but not a peep," Saunders said, in an admiring ellipsis. He then introduced us to the "Night in Venice" concertmaster, Frank Gittel- son, who acts as concertmaster for the Sadler's Wells Ballet whenever it comes here. GIttelson, a jolly man with a goa- tee mentioned that the chief vexation of outdoor, bayside music is wind, which at that very moment, as if on cue, sent a gust through his goatee. The orchestra depends on an amplifying system to com- pensate for whatever volume of sound may be blown away, Gittelson said, add- ing that twenty-siÀ microphones are distributed about the vast stage and pit and that the orchestra is seated in an un- orthodox pattern In order to take the best possible advantage of them The sound-control booth is on top of the grandstand, and the engineer, sitting before a console with fifty-odd knobs, Inust contrIve to balance such disparate sounds as French horns in tl1e pit, a chorus on the stage, and a tenor carol- ling into a walkie-talkie in a gondola on the bay. :\1r. Gittelson passed us on to the con- d uctor of the orchestra, Thomas Martin, who informed us that the wind blew away not only sound but, If the men weren't careful, their sheets of music. The safest way to fasten sheets to stands is with paper clips, he said .l-\.nother thing that has bothered the players IS the combination of sea air and humidity, which has caused violins to come apart under stress, in a flurry of catgut; bows to turn soggy and require eÀtra applica- tions of rosin; and harp strings to break.